Which trekking or butterfly bar?
 

Dear folks,

I am thinking of swapping out my Nitto Albatross bars (which I like a lot) in favor of a set of trekking bars, mostly in order to get even more hand positions. I've searched the forums, and it seems that most people who use 'em like 'em pretty well.

My problem is deciding which bars to try, as they all have slightly different shapes, dimensions, etc. Here are the leading contenders:

Nashbar -- but it seems to come only in black, and I want silver
Kalloy -- sold by a variety of vendors, including Velo-Orange and Wallbike
BBB -- look pretty nice, but might have to order from UK
Nitto -- spendy, but obviously high quality, heat-treated aluminum; hard to find

If you have experiences with any of these, or other, trekking/butterfly bars, I would love to hear what you think. This is especially true if you have any basis for comparing them. I realize of course, that handlebars are a matter of personal preference, and that what suits one person might not suit me. Thanks in advance!

P.S. Thinking of cross-posting in touring forum.

xlc offers one as well. You could always get black and wrap it in the color of your choice.

Two of my bikes have butterfly handlebars. One is a Koga Miyata, that has a Selego handlebar; imitating the antlers of a big deer.

The other, a squarish XLC, is mounted on a cheap 29-er, that I have turned into a bike for everyday use.

Both of them are very comfortable under most circumstances. The leather clad foam of the Koga handlebar turned out to be far superior to whatever I have tried on the XLC. So I have copied its leather over foam grips.

Both handlebars would be perfect had they been a couple of centimeters narrower. Even though I am tall and wide shouldered, 57 or 58 centimeter is just too wide to use the handlebar as comfortable as one would use bar ends on a straight handlebar.

The nice thing about the Nashbar is I got it for only about 15 bucks. I wrapped it with yellow tape (which looked great on my purple Rocky Mountain Fusion until I touched it with dirty hands!) and I really like it. It was nice that the mountain bike brifters fitted right on to the trekking bar, and I put some Ergon grips on the straight section. Very comfortable. So after I got all that done I went and bought a Fargo. Now I have two nice fitting bikes.

BBB has US distribution, Bike Mine out of Oklahoma City,
need a retail dealer with an account with them..

SJS UK will ship Modolo, .. their Dumbo is highly adjustable .
3 U shaped tubes, 1, 25.4,- 2, 22.2 OD. and machined clamps to join
and adjust them.

Seems a top notch set,
Width is an adjustment , then.. but in US dollars, it's maybe$100+ shipping,
to get to your door..
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/modolo-du...nds-prod18737/
Modolo Yuma looks like BBB, looks like Kalloy, But Kalloy are $20..
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/modolo-yu...ver-prod15572/

I got some ITM ones in '06 but no clue if they are made or sold anymore.
I have a Selego set I got from Wall Bike, the horn bits are optional .
you can just plug the tube ends of the U shaped 1" OD part.
somewhat like the dumbo, but not as adjustable as top portion is one piece.

I double wrap mine with padded tape.. as the bike sits outside in the rain, regularly..

I'd suggest the Kalloy, as you can get your LBS to order them and save shipping.

I've got the Kalloy bars. I didn't do any comparison b/c I was lucky enough to get mine for free from a generous BF member in my area.

That being said, I've been VERY happy with the Kalloy bars. They migrated from my hybrid to my Surly LHT when I built it up in the spring. Can't compare them to other brands b/c I haven't tried others, but I think you'll be happy with Kalloys, and they're on the cheaper end, which is also good.